The barefoot secret of Britain's Got Talent star Jean Martyn

BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Jean Martyn has revealed how an accident almost put paid to her musical career.

BRITAIN’S Got Talent star Jean Martyn has revealed how an accident almost put paid to her musical career.

She broke her foot so badly that she was in plaster for five months.

“My first question was: will I be able to play the organ again?” revealed the 59-year-old Staffordshire woman who made her way through to last night’s final with her enthusiastic, foot-stomping performances.

Fortunately, the break healed and the doctor gave her the go-ahead to play, on one condition – that she start wearing shoes again!

“I stopped wearing my left shoe to play after it flew off during a show and hit a man in the front row of the audience,” she said. “I was moving my leg so quickly.

“I decided there and then to take my left shoe off and didn’t wear it again to play. I was like the Sandie Shaw of the organ.

“But then, three years ago, I fell over – I was sober, honest – and it caused 11 breaks in the metatarsals and arch of my left foot,” added Jean, who lives in the village of Brewood, near Cannock.

“It was the same injury as Wayne Rooney, a very bad break. My consultant told me that I must never play the organ again without my shoe on because the pressure would undo all the healing.

“So I have to wear shoes now, with straps on so they don’t fly off, but I make sure they’re sparkly!”

Jean has become famous for her infectious smile and her bright, sequined jackets of many colours.

“I have about 40 jackets I’ve collected over the years. I buy them to go with my sparkling personality!” she said. “The Britain’s Got Talent wardrobe department made me a new jacket for the final, but I shall have to invest in some more for the tour.”

All the acts from the final will barely have time to catch their breath before they’re off on a national tour from next weekend, stopping off at Birmingham’s NIA on June 25.

Jean is surprised when we break the news that she’ll be playing such big venues.

“Goodness me, wow!” she says. “I had better get practising.”

She is fulfilling the prediction made by judge Michael McIntyre, who said after her semi-final: “I could see you playing stadiums with thousands of people.”

Amanda added: “Jean is like a can of Red Bull. She never stops. She’s got so much energy. She’s a nutter, in the nicest possible way. She’s like everyone’s mad auntie.”

Jean said: “I’ve been asked what it is that makes me so smiley, but it’s just having a happy life.”

She began playing the organ at the age of three in the back room of her parents’ post office in Brownhills. She became a church organist at 11 and four years later earned money playing for diners at the Fleur-de-Lys restaurant in Cannock.

Since then, Jean has toured the world, playing electric and theatre organs – and even Blackpool’s famous Tower Ballroom Wurlitzer.

She’s played for people from Princess Anne to Ken Dodd, but is still overwhelmed by the Britain’s Got Talent experience and the sudden fame it has brought her.

“I don’t think it’s really hit me, even when people rush up wanting to have their photos taken with me,” she said. “I’m enjoying it, though.”